Hungry Heart
This is an article not related to the Captain Tsubasa in-universe series but to other Takahashi's works. Hungry Heart (ハングリーハート) is a Japanese comic book series created by cartoonist Yoichi Takahashi focused on football. This is Takahashi's most successful series behind his seminal work Captain Tsubasa. The cartoon was serialized by Akita Shoten in its shonen magazine Weekly Shonen Champion from issue #9 of 2002 to issue #11 of 2005 for a total of 49 chapters. Due to Takahashi being engaged at the time with Captain Tsubasa: Road to 2002, during the first two years the chapters were irregularly published as he only drew chapters in his free time, and they only had a more regular publication starting 2004 once Takahashi finished the serialization of Road to 2002. Hungry Heart was compiled in six tankobon volumes. The focus of the plot is teenager Kyosuke Kano's live with football once his interest in it is rekindled due to Miki Tsujiwaki's efforts. A TV anime, titled Hungry Heart: Wild Striker, was developed based on the comic. Instead of strictly following the comic, both were co-developed at the same time, with the animation taking a more comedic approach. Both were successful in Japan, particularly the TV show which was also rebroadcast in several other countries with success, specially in Latin America and Asia. Despite the series success, Takahashi decided to end it to refocus once again on his magnum opus Captain Tsubasa. The comic was also published outside Japan. From to 2004 to 2005 in France by Asuka, in 2005 in Italy by Star Comics, and from 2006 to 2007 in Argentina and Spain by Ivrea. The series was also published in Hong Kong by Culturecom Holdings and in Taiwan by Ever Glory Publishing. Summary Kyosuke is an orange-haired teenage student delinquent who has just arrived to the Joyo Akanegaoka High School (城陽茜が丘高校). His older brother Seisuke (成介) is a famous player for A.C. Milan. Kyosuke, who learned the sport from Seisuke, also has potential in football, but has decided to leave it altogether. When his relationship to Seisuke is discovered, he is asked to join the Joyo Akanegaoka High School football team by Kasuto, which he refuses. However, Miki is able to blackmail him into becoming the coach of the girls football team, a trouble for Kyosuke due to his allergy to women. While his training appears to be designed just to annoy them and force Miki to give up, Miki eventually realizes that it had a purpose. With Miki's and Kazuto's passion for football, Keisuke's own gets rekindled and joins the team where he finds two other troublemakers, Rodrigo and Koji, with whom together they will mature in the sport and friendship... Main characters * Kyosuke Kano (叶恭介, kanou kyousuke). The titular striker of the series. While he likes football, he does not have the natural abilities of his brother, but instead is a powerful shooter. Once he discovers he is adopted, he decides to give up on football, dyes his hair orange and becomes a school delinquent until Miki rekindles his love for the sport. In the comic, like Yukinari Sasaki from Girls Bravo, he is allergic to girls and breaks out in hives when he is in the presence of them and only Miki is able to touch him without causing this effect. * Miki Tsujiwaki (辻脇美紀, tsujiwaki miki). Captain of the women's football club. Contrary to the other girls of the team, she doesn't know about Keisuke's famous brother or much about real football since she likes football due to the comics of Captain Tsubasa. * Kazuto Mori (森一人, mori kazuto). The manager of the football team. In the comic, he was injured from his left ankle due to a car accident in elementary school. When seeing his passion for football despite not being able to play competitively any more, along with Miki's love for football, Keisuke is finally convinced to play football again. * Rodrigo (ロドリゴ). A transfer student from Brazil on a football scholarship and midfielder. He aims to become a professional footballer as soon as possible to support his family. * Koji Sakai Jefferson (境ジェファーソン公司, sakai jefferson kouji). A goalkeeper. His father is Japanese while his mother is Swedish. Popular with women. * Coach Kazuo Murakami (村上一夫監督, murakami kazuo kantoku). The coach of Joyo Akanegaoka High School football team. He appears to laze around fishing most of the time, but in reality he is always thinking about football and sees the potential of the three newcomers. * Kaori Domoto (堂本香織, doumoto kaori). Joyo's dietitian, conditioning advisor and psychologist. Development While he was working in Captain Tsubasa: Road to 2002, Nippon Animation with Korea Japan 2002 in mind, contacted Takahashi to request a football series to revive the passion for football with the aim to create an animated adaptation. Thus, Hungry Heart was born. With Hungry Heart, Takahashi tried once again what he had failed to do with Striker Jin: get younger generations interested in being forwards. This was due to the accidental effect caused by the success of the Captain Tsubasa series which made that generations that grew with the series wanted to become midfielder like the protagonist Tsubasa Ozora, which eventually ended up inducing a draught at a professional level of skilled players in other positions, particularly natural forwards. Instead of following the same approach of Captain Tsubasa, which failed with Striker Jin, Takahashi developed a different type of protagonist physically and in personality, with a delinquent-like attitude more similar to that of Hanamichi Sakuragi from Slam Dunk than to the virtuous persona of Tsubasa Ozora, a more realistic depiction of the sport, a team that loses from time to time and with a faster pacing in storytelling. Since in Captain Tsubasa Tsubasa skipped high school to become a professional in Brazil, Takahashi decided to focus on this level in Hungry Heart since he considered this period an important part in one's life that was left out in Captain Tsubasa, and also wanted to focus on the close relationship of school and sport life that is present in Japan. Takahashi commented in the first volume that the name of the series comes from Bruce Springsteen's song "Hungry Heart" which Takahashi apparently listened while travelling to Sydney 2000. The orange motif seen in the series comes from the Netherlands national football team, which Takahashi likes a a lot. Serialization Gallery Japanese edition Hungry_Heart_v1.jpg|#1, 2002-11-07, ISBN 9784253203753, 196p Hungry_Heart_v2.jpg|#2, 2003-11-20, ISBN 9784253203760, 184p Hungry_Heart_v3.jpg|#3, 2004-09-02, ISBN 9784253203777, 187p Hungry_Heart_v4.jpg|#4, 2004-12-09, ISBN 9784253203784, 184p Hungry_Heart_v5.jpg|#5, 2005-02-08, ISBN 9784253203791, 200p Hungry_Heart_v6.jpg|#6, 2005-04-08, ISBN 9784253203807, 187p French edition Hungry_Heart_fr_v1.jpg|#1, Asuka, 2004-02-23, ISBN 9782849650059, 208p Hungry_Heart_fr_v2.jpg|#2, Asuka, 2004-04-19, ISBN 9782849650066, 185p Hungry_Heart_fr_v3.jpg|#3, Asuka, 2004-10-28, ISBN 9782849650318, 192p Hungry_Heart_fr_v4.jpg|#4, Asuka, 2005-04-28, ISBN 9782849650479, 188p Hungry_Heart_fr_v5.jpg|#5, Asuka, 2005-07-28, ISBN 9782849650646, 206p Hungry_Heart_fr_v6.jpg|#6, Asuka, 2005-10-13, ISBN 9782849650875, 190p Italian edition Hungry_Heart_it_v1.jpg|#1, Star Comics, Techno #130, 2005-02-16, ISBN 9771129994006-50130 Hungry_Heart_it_v2.jpg|#2, Star Comics, Techno #131, 2005-03-16, ISBN 9771129994006-50131 Hungry_Heart_it_v3.jpg|#3, Star Comics, Techno #132, 2005-04-18, ISBN 9771129994006-50132 Hungry_Heart_it_v4.jpg|#4, Star Comics, Techno #133, 2005-05-18, ISBN 9771129994006-50133 Hungry_Heart_it_v5.jpg|#5, Star Comics, Techno #134, 2005-06-17, ISBN 9771129994006-50134 Hungry_Heart_it_v6.jpg|#6, Star Comics, Techno #135, 2005-07-18, ISBN 9771129994006-50135 Spanish edition Hungry_Heart_ar_v1.jpg|#1, Ivrea, 2006-03, ISBN 9789875624962, 208p Hungry_Heart_ar_v2.jpg|#2, Ivrea, 2006-05, ISBN 9789875625150, 208p Hungry_Heart_ar_v3.jpg|#3, Ivrea, 2006-07, ISBN 9789875625525, 192p Hungry_Heart_ar_v4.jpg|#4, Ivrea, 2006-09, ISBN 9789875625785, 208p Hungry_Heart_ar_v5.jpg|#5, Ivrea, 2006-11, ISBN 9789875625846, 208p Hungry_Heart_ar_v6.jpg|#6, Ivrea, 2007-01, ISBN 9789875626102, 208p Hungry_Heart_es_v1_back.jpg|Back cover of vol.1, Spain's edition Hungry_Heart_es_v2_back.jpg|Back cover of vol.2, Spain's edition Hungry_Heart_es_v3_back.jpg|Back cover of vol.3, Spain's edition Hungry_Heart_es_v4_back.jpg|Back cover of vol.4, Spain's edition Hungry_Heart_es_v5_back.jpg|Back cover of vol.5, Spain's edition Hungry_Heart_es_v6_back.jpg|Back cover of vol.6, Spain's edition Other images Hungry Heart fr v1 pages.jpg|Pages from vol.1, French version Hungry Heart fr v2 pages.jpg|Pages from vol.2, French version Hungry Heart fr v3 pages.jpg|Pages from vol.3, French version Hungry Heart fr v4 page.jpg|Page from vol.4, French version Hungry Heart fr v5 page.jpg|Page from vol.5, French version Hungry Heart fr v6 page.jpg|Page from vol.6, French version Hungry Heart image 01.jpg|Kyosuke and Miki External links *Series info at Wikipedia *Series info at Japanese Wikipedia (Japanese) *Series info at Italian Wikipedia (Italian) *Series info at Spanish Wikipedia (Spanish) *Series info at Boys Comic Encyclopedia (Japanese) *Series info at Japanese Works Database (Japanese) *Scanlated chapters at MangaHere }} Category:Other works of Yoichi Takahashi